Church Family,
I find that interruptions can be annoying, don’t you? You are concentrating on a good read when you are asked a question that breaks your concentration. You are in the middle of a good movie when the phone rings. Or maybe you and your team are making great headway on a project at work when you get interrupted. But it may be that the interruptions provide us with the pause necessary to find inspiration. Such was the case of Samuel Morse. Morse reasoned that an interruption in an electrical current could be turned into a language of its own. Aboard the Sully, on a return trip to the States, Morse paced the deck until he had developed the alphabet for what became Morse Code. An incredible scientific breakthrough that enabled international communication in a fraction of the time of conventional mail was possible because someone paid attention to the interruption!
Advent can be a most productive interruption if we will allow it to. During advent, our schedules can be interrupted. Our normal focus can be interrupted. Even our affections can be interrupted. Advent becomes an opportunity to allow the Lord to interrupt us, to grab our attention. If embraced, it forces us to reallocate our priorities and remember a pause in the life of a young virgin 2000 years ago. Mary and Joseph were interrupted by a mandatory census. While in Bethlehem, they were interrupted by the time for her to give birth. In the fields, shepherds were interrupted by angels! What an amazing time it must have been.
I realize that for some, Christmas can be a difficult time. I realize that for some, Christmas with all its western trappings is a huge bother. Let me encourage you to interrupt your normal routine and participate in Advent. God has and can speak wonderfully, even profoundly to us in the interruption.
Merry Christmas!